Bowling Green, Ohio – Visiting Cincinnati broke away from its slim four-point halftime advantage to post an 83-50 win over Bowling Green Wednesday at the Stroh Center.The Falcons matched up with the Bearcats throughout the first half and trailed 35-31 at the halftime break. However, Cincinnati used a 26-4 run over the first nine minutes after intermission to outscore BGSU 48-19 over the final 20 minutes.

Junior guard Zack Denny led the Falcons with 13 points and five rebounds in 26 minutes of action, while senior forward Spencer Parker chipped in with 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting in 20 minutes of play. Off the bench, freshman Antwon Lillard added nine points and three rebounds, while starting senior guard David Joseph finished with eight points, three assists and a career-high six rebounds.

The Bearcats had three players in double figures. Farad Cobb tallied 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including six three-pointers. Jacob Evans and Shaq Thomas with 10 points each. Cincy's bigs -- Coreontae Deberry and Gary Clark -- pulled down 12 and 10 rebounds, respectively, as the Bearcats out-rebounded BGSU 49-38 in the contest.

Both teams came out firing from long range, as the visitors in black took a 3-0 lead on a trey from Cobb 32 seconds into the contest. That was immediately followed by a trey from the left corner from Denny to tie the game up at 3-3 with less than a minute ticked off the game clock.

A Denny jumper 30 seconds later gave the Falcons their first lead of the game at 5-3. However, the lead lasted a mere 30 seconds when Cincy's Clark scored on a mid-range jumper to knot the score up again at 5-5 at the 18:10 mark of the opening half.

The Clark jumper was the first two points of a 13-3 run by the Bearcats, who pulled out to an eight-point lead over the home team at 16-8 with 11:07 to go in the first half of play.

BGSU ended a scoring drought of nearly five minutes with a jumper from Garrett Mayleben and then used a 5-1 run with all five points coming from Lillard to trim the Cincinnati lead to just two at 17-15 with just over eight minutes remaining before the halftime break.

Free throws from Joseph, a jumper from Lillard and a three-ball from Denny over the next three minutes of game time saw BGSU tie the score up again at 22-22 at the 5:03 mark of the first half. Yet, the veteran Bearcats answered with a long three from Cobb on the next possession to retake the lead at 25-22. It was lead that they would hold on to for the remainder of the contest.

The home team closed the half out with a free throw from Joseph, a rebound and put-back basket from freshman forward Demajeo Wiggins and two three pointers from Denny and guard Ismail Ali to get to within one at 32-31 with the first half ticking away.

Cincinnati picked up a three from Justin Jenifer in the closing seconds of the first half to pull back in front by two baskets at 35-31 at the halftime break.

The halftime intermission did nothing to help the Falcons, as BGSU came out of the locker room ice cold from the floor offensively. They also struggled with the Cincinnati pressure, coughing up the ball four times and missed all of their eight shot attempts over the first six minutes of the second half.

During that span, Cincinnati went on an 18-2 run, with the lone two Falcon points coming from the free throw line, to pull away from the home team and take a 20-point lead at 53-33 with 14:24 to go in regulation.

A reverse layup from Lillard at the 14:02 mark ended Bowling Green's field goal drought, only to see UC follow with eight straight points to take its largest lead of the night at 61-35 on a trey from Troy Caupain at the 11:15 mark of the second half.

BGSU cut the lead down to 19 on three separate occasions over the next four minutes. However, the two teams kept trading baskets, which allowed Cincinnati to hold on to its double digit lead en route to the 80-53 road win.

The Falcons shot just 29.3 percent (17-of-58) as a team for the game, while Cincinnati shot 47 percent overall (31-of-66) in the win. UC also knocked down 13 three's in the contest, six more than the Falcons' seven on the night. Both teams struggled at the free throw line, with the Bearcats shooting 50 percent (8-of-16) and BGSU shooting 52.9 percent (9-of-17).

The bigger Bearcats outscored the Falcons 28-14 in points in the paint and 10-2 in second chance points. Cincy also held an 11-8 edge in fast break points, outscored the Falcons 22-7 in points off turnovers and trailed 35-19 in bench points for the game.

BGSU (1-1) will next hit the road for the first time on the young 2015-16 season, as the Falcons will head south to compete in the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic, hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla. on Nov. 21-23. BGSU will take on North Dakota on Nov. 21 at 4 p.m. for the first of three straight games over the weekend.

NOTES:

>>Wednesday's game marked the second annual Bill Frack Challenge. A sea of white blanketed the Stroh Center in the "White Out" as the announced attendance was 3,411 fans. That is the fifth largest crowd to watch a BGSU men's basketball inside the Stroh Center in the buildings history which is in its fifth year of existence.

>> The loss to Cincinnati was the first loss of the season for the Falcons (1-1).BGSU is now 1-8 all-time versus the Bearcats in men's basketball action.The Falcons are 1-1 now in Bill Frack Challenges with the yearly game in its second year.

(Courtesy of BGSU Athletics)

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Mike Smith saw his first MAC footb﻿a﻿ll action as a nine-year-old while hanging onto the flagpole of a nearby baseball stadium. The view got better after he discovered he could get in free at halftime. Decades later, he can usually be found either on press row or along the sidelines.Mike has won awards for both his stories and pictures during his time in journalism. Combining his own skills with those of other writers and photographers, along with conference and school resources, he constantly works to provide an enjoyable MAC product.